Social class inequalities

Life chances

How some members of society have better it better than others to achieve desirable things e.g.;

Long, happy life

Good education

Fullfulling well-paid job

Own a home

Enjoy paid holidays & leisure time

Weber linked these desires to social class

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Social mobility

Intergenerated mobility (absolute); moblity between generations

Intragenerated mobility (relative) between classes by indiv. in life

Oxford Mobility study Goldthorpe; 10,000 fathers and sons, conducted after WW2- upward absolute mobility for everyone due to free education. Less manual work- more service sector- increase in absolute social mobility. However, relative mobility- 3 social classes- hardly changed. 1:2:4 Rule of relative Hope. Whatever chance wc. boy had of reaching service class- intermediate class boy- 2x more likely to, and boy starting off in service class- 4x chance.

Essex Uni. mobility study; relative mobility still very unequal. Someone starting off in service class= 7x more likely to end up in service class then someone starting off in WC. background

Savage & Egerton; longitudinal study (1958)- 53% wc. sons stayed in wc. Service class sons= 2x more likely to end up in service class jobs than wc boys. Women=different; wc. women more likely to move into intermediate classes + more service class women compated to men.

Income

50's-90's- slight narrowing of income inequality- tho due to Thatcher, income inequalities rosesharply. Gov.- cut rates of income tax for very rich and cut many state benefits.

Income ineq. slowed down in 90's, but is now increasing due to conservative gov.- tax and benefit reforms

Benefits; makes up for 56% of gross income of poorest 5th households compared to 3.2% of riches-2012.

Tax; poorest 5th paid 37.1% of their incomes compared to 35.1% of the richest 5th- due to direct taxes e.g. income tax fall most heavily on the rich, indirect taxes e.g. VAT fall most heavily on the poor

High pay centre- total pay for cheif ex. of top 100 companies- risen by 49% compared to 3% of employees.